KANSAS.

CHAPTER 1.

Excitement in relation to Kansas.-Difference of Opinion.-The President's Special Message.-Washington.-Contest as to a Seat in Congress.-Rival Legislatures.-Appointment of a Committee of Investigation.-Southern Meetings.— Volunteers in arms.-Missouri.-Powder and Shot.-Advertisements.-A Crisis at Hand.-Visit to Kansas.

WHEN in New York, during the latter part of the winter of 1855-6, I heard daily discussions on the condition of affairs in the far western territory of Kansas.. Some of the newspapers had their special correspondence at what was termed "the seat of war," and all were eager to supply the latest intelligence. from the scene of contest. At Washington, whilst the house of Representatives was busy choosing a Speaker,-a process which lasted through nine weeks, and required one hundred and thirty-three ballots,-the President, without waiting for the organization of the house, made Kansas the subject of a special message. Yet, while all parties agreed in recognizing the

existence of disorder in Kansas, there were strange differences in the light in which that disorder was regarded.

Many of the public journals spoke with indignant censure of bloodshed and forcible invasion from neighbouring states, as well as of violent interference with the people of Kansas in the exercise of their rights of suffrage. The President spoke in mild terms of "disturbing circumstances," "irregularities," and "inauspicious events," adding, that "whatever irregularities might have occurred in the elections, it seemed too late now to raise that question."

The papers spoke of a legislative body claiming authority over the residents of Kansas, which they had not elected, but which had been forciby thrust upon them with pistol and bludgeon by a lawless horde from the State of Missouri. The President said, that "for all present purposes the legislative body, thus constituted and elected, was the legitimate assembly of the territory.”

The people of Kansas were represented by a large portion of the press as groaning under a most oppressive legislation, and as craving de

THE PRESIDENT'S SPECIAL MESSAGE. 3

liverance from a fraudulent legislature, and from tyrannical laws enacted by that legislature. The President made it the conclusion of his message, that he felt it his imperative duty to exert the whole power of the federal executive for the vindication of these laws, for the suppression of all resistance to them, and for the support thereby of public order in the territory. He begged all good citizens to help him thus to restore peace, and asked for an appropriation to defray the expense of enforcing the laws, and thus maintaining public order in Kansas.

The difference was apparent. A large portion of the people denied the legality of the legislative power in the territory, and bitterly complained of the injustice with which that power was exercised, and the oppressions under which they were consequently placed. The President said it was too late now to raise the question of legality,-they must submit; that if they did submit, peace would ensue; but, if otherwise, the federal force and the army of the United States would be employed against them to compel their submission.

At Washington I gained further insight into the question.

I saw the tall figure of General Whitfield moving about the House of Representatives, and heard lengthened arguments whether he or the ex-govenor Reeder was the rightful delegate of Kansas. These discussions ended in permission being given to Mr. Whitfield, the pro-slavery delegate, to occupy a seat in the house without voting, the question of right between him and Mr. Reeder being reserved.

Every day I heard Kansas and its contest argued upon in the Senate Chamber and in the House of Representatives, in the bustling hall of the National Hotel, and in private political circles. I heard that which I conceived to be the extreme on the one side and on the other, and was not long in discovering that, while the President and the advocates of Southern views maintained the authority of the illegally constituted Territorial Legislature of Kansas, and of the judiciary and other officers appointed by it, the opposite party, with a large portion of the people of Kansas themselves, asserted the claims of an incipient State Legislature, which

COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY.

5

they had elected in the prospect of its being admitted as a state.

A double legislature, a double judiciary, a double set of civil appointments throughout each claiming sole prerogative, the State Legislature calling the Territorial a fraud, and the Territorial calling the State Legislature a sham; such a political condition appeared strangely anomalous.

On the one side of the question a very long report from the Committee of Territories was presented to the Senate by Mr. Douglas, and on the other side, a "minority report," from the same committee by Mr. Collamer. At length, on the 19th of March, Congress gave a temporary check to the protracted discussion by accepting a motion which sprang from the Committee on Elections, to the effect that a committee should be appointed to investigate and collect evidence in regard to the troubles in Kansas generally, and particularly in regard to any fraudulent or violent proceedings that might have accompanied the elections in the territory. No member from any one of the Southern states voted in favour of the investi